Baba-Yaga (in Russian pronounced Bába-Yəgá; in Bulgarian pronounced Bába Yágə; also spelled Baba Jaga) is a witch-like character in Slavic folklore. She flies around on a giant mortar or broomstick, kidnaps (and presumably eats) small children, and lives in a hut which stands on chicken legs. In most Slavic folk tales she is portrayed as an antagonist; however, some characters in other mythological folk stories have been known to seek her out for her wisdom, and she has been known on occasion to offer guidance to lost souls, although this is seen as rare.

Etymology and origin
The name of Baba-Yaga is composed of two elements. Baba means "old woman, grandmother" used in most Slavic languages; it derives from child language and often has pejorative connotations. The second element, yaga, is from Proto-Slavic (j)ęgа, which is probably related to Lithuanian ingis 'lazybones, sluggard', Old Norse ekki 'pain', and Old English inca 'question, scruple, doubt; grievance, quarrel'. It has also been suggested that Yaga may be a diminutive of the feminine name Jadwiga.

An early recorded reference to "yaga-baba" is in Of the Russe Common Wealth by Giles Fletcher, the Elder, in the section "About Permyaks, Samoyeds and Lopars", indicating at a possible Finno-Ugric influence.

The name differs within the various Slavic languages. It is spelled "Baba Jaga" in Czech, Slovak and Polish (though Czech and Slovak also use Ježibaba). In Slovene, the words are reversed, producing Jaga Baba. In Russian, Bulgarian, Ukrainian and Belarusian it is Баба Яга transliterated as Baba Yaga (also Baba Jaga, in Ukrainan and Belarusian Baba Yaha or Baba Jaha). In South Slavic languages and traditions, there is a similar old witch, written Baba Roga in Croatian and Bosnian, and Баба Рога in Serbian and Macedonian. In Romanian, which is not Slavic but one of the Romance languages, the name is "Baba Cloanţa" (roughly translated as "old hag with broken teeth").

Folklore
In Russian tales, Baba Yaga is portrayed as a hag who flies through the air in a mortar, using the pestle as a rudder and sweeping away the tracks behind her with a broom made out of silver birch. She lives in a log cabin that moves around on a pair of dancing chicken legs, and/or is surrounded by a palisade with a skull on each pole. The keyhole to her front door is a mouth filled with sharp teeth; the fence outside is made with human bones with skulls on top, often with one pole lacking its skull, leaving space for the hero or heroes. In another legend, the hut does not reveal the door until it is told a magical phrase: Turn your back to the forest, your front to me.

In some tales, the hut is connected with three riders: one in white, riding a white horse with white harness, who is Day; a red rider, who is the Sun; and one in black, who is Night. Baba Yaga is served by invisible servants inside the hut. She will explain the riders if asked, but may kill a visitor who inquires about the servants.

Baba Yaga is sometimes shown as an antagonist, and sometimes as a source of guidance; there are stories where she helps people with their quests, and stories in which she kidnaps children and threatens to eat them. Seeking out her aid is usually portrayed as a dangerous act. An emphasis is placed on the need for proper preparation and purity of spirit, as well as basic politeness. It is said she ages one year every time she is asked a question, which probably explains her reluctance to help. This effect, however, can be reversed with a special blend of tea made with blue roses.

In the folk tale Vasilissa the Beautiful, recorded by Alexander Afanasyev (Narodnye russkie skazki, vol 4, 1862), the young girl of the title is given three impossible tasks that she solves using a magic doll given to her by her mother.

In the Christianised version of the story, Vasilissa is sent to visit Baba Yaga on an errand and is enslaved by her, but the hag's servants — a cat, a dog, a gate, and a tree — help Vasilissa to escape because she has been kind to them. In the end, Baba Yaga is turned into a crow. Similarly, Prince Ivan in The Death of Koschei the Deathless is aided against her by animals whom he has spared.

The version in Polish folklore differs in details. For example, the Polish Baba Jaga's hut has only one chicken leg. Monstrous witches living in gingerbread hut are also commonly named Baba Jaga. Baba Jaga, flying on a mop, wearing black and red striped folk cloth of Świętokrzyskie Mountains is an unofficial symbol of Kielce region (it is connected with legendary witches sabbaths on Łysa Góra mountain).

Baba Yaga is used as a stock character by authors of modern Russian fairy tales, and from the 1990s in Russian fantasy. In particular, Baba Yaga meets at Andrey Belyanin's books in his cycle Secret service of Tsar Pea, etc. The childhood and youth of Baba Yaga for the first time were described in the A. Aliverdiev's tale Creek ("Lukomorie").

In some fairy tales, such as The Feather of Finist the Falcon, the hero meets not with one but three Baba Yagas. Such figures are usually benevolent, giving the hero advice or magical presents, or both.

Other recorded Russian fairy tales that feature Baba Yaga are Teryoshechka, The Enchanted Princess, and The Silver Saucer and the Red Apple.


Cabin on chicken legs

According to Russian folklore, Baba Yaga dwells, in the words of the preface to Alexander Pushkin's fantasy poem Ruslan and Lyudmila, in a "cabin on chicken legs... with no windows and no doors". Baba Yaga herself usually uses the chimney to fly in and out on her mortar. Sometimes the door appears at the other side of the hut; to see it, a hero should say "Hut, o hut, turn your back to the woods, your front to me" and thus force the cabin to turn around and discover the door.

This may be an interpretation of an ordinary construction popular among hunter-nomadic peoples of Siberia of Uralic (Finno-Ugric) and Tungusic families, invented to preserve supplies against animals during long periods of absence. A doorless and windowless log cabin is built upon supports made from the stumps of two or three closely grown trees cut at the height of eight to ten feet. The stumps, with their spreading roots, would give an impression of "chicken legs".

A similar but smaller construction was used by Siberian pagans to hold figurines of their gods. Recalling the late matriarchy among Siberian peoples, a common picture of a bone-carved doll in rags in a small cabin on top of a tree stump fits a common description of Baba Yaga, who barely fits her cabin: her legs lie in one corner, her head in another one, and her nose is grown into the ceiling.

There are indications that ancient Slavs had a funeral tradition of cremation in huts of this type. In 1948 Russian archaeologists Yefimenko and Tretyakov discovered small huts of the described type with traces of corpse cremation and circular fences around them; yet another possible connection to the Baba Yaga myth.

Modern fantasy writers, such as Tad Williams and Elaine Cunningham use the character of the cabin on chicken legs in their works, as do Fritz Leiber in Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser and Mike Mignola in his portrayal of Baba Yaga in his Hellboy comics. The castle in Hayao Miyazaki's film version of Diana Wynne Jones' novel Howl's Moving Castle also moves on mechanical chicken legs.

The above text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ( creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ ). It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Baba Yaga" ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_Yaga ).